Oh no I didn't mean to imply that in a negative way at all. Its like NY, but way cheaper. My friend bought a nice 2BR condo in a building with a doorman and a pool and balcony on the 30th something floor for 300k. A different friend of mine is spending every other week there for work (we both moved to the same company HQ'ed there), considered buying a crashpad 800 sqft 1BR in "the loop" aka right downtown for a bit over 200k. These are prime locations where you can walk or bike to work. A few stops out on the red line to the north and you can get a lakefront (with a view) 1000sq ft 1BR for <200k as per my trulia search a moment ago.

Salaries are lower than NYC, but not that much. A dev on hacker news should be able to comfortably afford not only to live on his own but to own a place on a single income.

It still has good parks, museums and restaurants, but they are in my experience far less pretentious, and with a few exceptions (ahem Alinea), much easier to get into. There are clubs, there is art, but its all just a bit more muted.

A lot of people love NY for the extremes and the "OMG only in NYC" stuff but I find Chicago to be a cleaner toned down version that doesn't take itself too seriously like NYC often does.

Yep, Chicago’s discount over cities of similar stature is pretty staggering. And if you want to live the same frugal lifestyle you would in SF (roommates + hour commute on public transit) you could spend $600 on housing and potentially burn less than $15k/year. That would be some incredible progress towards savings goals or financial independence at a Chicago tech worker’s salary.

Lol. “Omg only in NYC” is the trap that has kept me there this long.

I suppose my network is pretty strong at this point, so finding work as a freelance dev has been quite nice as a result. Though my network led me to Chicago, so i shouldn’t think my ability to find work isn’t constrained to nyc only.